152 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



The theoretical case against subsidies pure 

 and simple is still stronger. To put the 

 question quite simply, why should a workman 

 in Wandsworth be taxed in order to provide 

 a better cottage for a Dorset labourer ? On 

 what principle do you ask the vast majority 

 of our taxpayers most of whom are poor 

 people to pay further imposts in order to 

 better the condition of a mere fraction of the 

 population ? The stupid arguments about the 

 use of Norwegian granite and foreign leather 

 by the State are easily answered by pointing 

 out that a small body of Aberdeen quarrymen 

 or British leather makers have no real claim 

 to extract thousands of pounds out of the 

 national exchequer for their own especial 

 benefit. 



The best reply to the formidable argument 

 against housing grants, is that circumstances 

 alter cases, and that abundant precedents 

 exist for the violation of a political theory 

 which from a strictly logical point of view is 

 unassailable. After all, taxes are levied by the 

 people on themselves, and if any party goes 

 to the poll with a clear pronouncement that 

 the evils of rural housing are so serious a 

 menace to our national not less than our local 

 welfare that the general revenues of the State 

 may well be drawn upon for special grants to 



